Blue Notes

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Continuum - Jaco Pastorius cover - Ft. Reinhard Bock

Rikki Don't Lose That Number

An original song written, produced and arranged by Benny Sutton
I kissed a girl is about a guy who, after being dumped, gets an ai robot replacement - in the same image as his Ex!

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I Kissed A Girl Just Like You

I wrote a Christmas Song!

A Case of You is arguably one of the greatest breakup songs ever
Joni is eloquent and poetic ode to long-time lover Graham Nash
It is a tale of star-crossed lovers, great Love, found and lost
Originally on the Blue album
There are over 300 known cover versions of it, by 300 artists (now 301) including Prince
All found something they could make their own

A Case Of You by Joni Mitchell Ft. Sam B.

Have a John Lennon Christmas!

Is River by Joni Mitchell the best Christmas song ever?
It was off the 1973 'Blue' Album and amazingly was never released as a single.
Nor was it a Christmas song, it was a sad love song about her breakup with Graham Nash.
It just got so much airplay it grew into a classic that gets played very holiday season.

River by Joni Mitchell Ft. Anita O.

The Joni Project

Blue by Joni Mitchell

Skinny White Rock Chicks sing Good Old Fashioned Rock 'n' Roll

Carey by Joni Mitchell - soft rock cover

This is my first ever guitar duet collaboration so who better to do it with than the immensely talented Dan Van Den Berg @danarchx
I know, I was a bit skeptical of multiple guitarists too. It probably doesn't occur to guitarists to collab with other guitarists and when we do we stick into comfort zones e.g. Larry Carlton teams up with Robben Ford.
So I wanted to do something with a player who is so different it is obvious which of us is playing at any time. I'm pleased to say that I think the contrast of our styles really works. To avoid confusion, I'm the slow/blusey one playing an Ovation electric and Dan is the fast/fusion technical one playing the Ibanez.
Dan really thought about this one. He went for a rounded tone and used a setting kind of similar to that of Al Di Meola in his early solo work, where he uses a Phaser with light gain and fast muted lines causing the typical tic toc sound of the guitar.
Man I love it, hope you do too!

other credits
Written by Freddie Hubbard
arranged by Devian
Vibraphone by Iman Tjahjono

[video]

Little Sunflower GUITAR DUET with Dan van den Berg (downloadable)

FROM THE 'BLUE NOTES' ALBUM. Download the album now! 
For this track I've gone back to my blues roots. The solo starts off very clean but soon descends into anarchy. The name of the preset I used on my guitar pedal is 'Bonamassa' that should tell you all you need to know! Seriously, the wah wah Rock Blues thing is how I used to do it. So now I have proven I still can get down mean and dirtay. All Blues is classic Miles Davis first appearing on the influential 1959 Columbia album Kind of Blue.

[album]

Miles Davis ---- All Blues

Another track from my Blue Notes album. You can download it free by clicking the [album] link.
This track is composed by Charles Mingus originally recorded by his sextet in 1959 as listed below, and released on his album Mingus Ah Um. Mingus wrote it as an elegy for saxophonist Lester Young, who had died two months prior to the recording session, and was known to wear a broad-rimmed pork pie hat.
It's been covered by many including Miles (hence the link to blue note), Joni Mitchell, Jeff Beck and other notables. I follow the Marcus Miller arrangement so I'm playing High Bass again.

Goodbye Porkpie Hat ---- Charles Mingus (downloadable)

Another track from my Blue Notes album. You can download it free by clicking the [album] link.
John Coltrane, the saxophonist, is another influential Blue Note Artiste. He was certainly a virtuoso player. This track is notoriously difficult to solo over due to having three tonal centres that change almost every bar! I got around this by slowing it down and playing in Pentatonic scales sparingly. It's a great track and I found that doing it in the style of Weather Report worked best. The faux lead bass line is me playing the lower registers of my Nylon stringed electro acoustic again. How do you like the trumpet solo, not a real one, the melody was written into MIDI and I used a VSTi enhanced by a breath controller to make it more realistic. It's not 100% but almost indistinguishable from a real horn.

Giant Steps ---- John Coltrane

Take Five is a jazz classic composed by Paul Desmond and performed by The Dave Brubeck Quartet on their 1959 album Time Out. Sadly Dave was on Columbia but undoubtedly influenced by Blue Note. It's another great arrangement from Devian, this time with a samba beat. The melody line doesn't lend itself to the guitar so I have restricted myself to a solo only. See if you can spot a cheeky 4 bars of Techno!

Take Five ---- Dave Brubeck (downloadable)

This track absorbs House and Elektro beats and doesn't blink! Blue Train was the second studio album by John Coltrane, released in 1958 on Blue Note Records. Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, it is Coltrane's second solo album, the only one he recorded for Blue Note as a leader, and the only one he conceived personally for the label.
John Coltrane's next major album, 1960's Giant Steps, would break new melodic and harmonic ground in jazz, whereas Blue Train adheres to the hard bop style of the era.
I've also covered Giant Steps https://soundcloud.com/bennysutton/giant-steps-by-john-coltrane

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Blue Train ---- John Coltrane

Check out my Soundcloud channel for my latest music releases. 
Love Guitar? You're in the right place!
I'm different! I play melodies - even when improvising!  
I'm really not interested in impressing other musicians. I'm creating music for everyone.
I'M ALSO HERE...
http://www.bennysutton.com
MY VIDEOS http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5TJp0GyhYOnusiCGB8z4fG0T8G35gTTi
https://soundcloud.com/bennysutton_covers


ABOUT ME
I play the music I like to listen to. 
As a guitarist I like to think I have my own style.
Harmony, and the groove is what I'm chasing, hopefully with a tasteful, nuanced, and distinctive presentation. 
I don't have a genre as such. I could sort of call myself a smooth Jazz 'n' Blues guitar 'thang' but in reality every track crosses over multiple strands of R&B/Jazz/Funk/Pop. Don't be put off by my use of the "J" word. Jazz to me is anything unpredictable and I'm nothing if not contemporary. 
Rhythm playing is as much a part of my "game" as lead soloing. I love the Funk!
My main instrument is guitar. I play a 1973 Ovation Breadwinner, an Ibanez nylon stringed and a Yamaha keyboard loaded with Keyscape. Unless stated I play all the other instruments too (mostly Bass), and sequence MIDI and arrange/produce. 

MY JOURNEY
I was signed with Fresh Air records and EMI in the 1980's creating Jazz/funk dance tracks but things were just as challenging then as they are now for musicians so I got a 'proper job' for 20 years! During all that time my guitar was in the loft! I rediscovered music in 2010 and Soundcloud in 2014.


MY SOUNDCLOUD
I am grateful to Soundcloud listeners who take the time to press |>Play - and especially if you give me some feedback :-)
I hope what you hear will draw you in sufficiently to explore on my own website. Nearly all my original stuff (6 albums worth) are on www.BennySutton.com and all are downloadable.
Please don't follow me in hope of getting to get an automatic follow back. I don't do that because I only follow the smallest number of people I can keep track of. I'll have a look at your page but will only follow back if you are really of interest to me. See my follow list, you'll discover some very talented artistes, many of whom I have been lucky to Collab. Soundcloud really is the place to find the real innovators these days - not the music industry approved channels, especially MTV!
If you want to get my attention, send me a PM.

Little Sunflower GUITAR DUET with Dan van den Berg (downloadable)

Benny Sutton

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